"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"

William Wordsworth

Alec Greer 3/19/08

 

 

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I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud:
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars
that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth was a Romantic poet who wrote in the early to mid-1800s. This work of his is considered one of the most famous English poems. He was one of the most influential writers in the early Romantic era, as his writing (both poetry and his theories on Romanticism) were held in high regard by artists everywhere. His views on nature and human emotion can be seen in his poems, which are replete with imagery and a sense of respect for nature's miracles.

 

For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity.

-William Wordsworth